After the battle, Keir went back to his resting place, which was a deep cave but he only used it as a shelter and storage for now. He planned on staying in the forest and gaining more strength and knowledge for the seventh day while it was the fourth morning of the week.
Keir brought out the blessed item, the map, and poured some of his blood and the blood broke apart and scatted around. He searched for himself on the map to know his location, but couldn't seem to find it. He stood up and started making long jumps from his left to right to see where he was, but what he found was unforeseen.
Keir notices a tiny pale blood drop moving from left to right on the map. The mad had labeled Keir as a monster on the map. It was no surprise, though.
Another thing Keir noticed was that he was at the edge of the forest and the shade of blood was pale at the edge and went darker as it moved away from the edge of the forest. This means that the deeper the forest is where stronger the monsters are.
Keir ventured deeper into the forest to meet stronger monsters, but one thing he feared was that the memories of the people he killed never went deep enough for the blood to be fully opaque and darker. They stuck to the areas where the monsters were less and weak.
He defeated the group, but that was only because he had the advantage of seeing in the dark and also because the fire was dim. He could never defeat that group in daylight even with a superior boost potion.
Keir had to kill more types of monsters to gain more unique abilities, so he immediately threw away the worn armor plates and started equipping himself with the looted armors.
Keir decided he would hunt a slightly higher-ranked beast and fortunately, he found one who was roaming alone.
Without wasting a minute, Keir dashed in the beast's direction. As he neared the stronger beast, he heard a gushing sound of a waterfall. Before he realized it, he was in front of a huge waterfall.
The water gushed into the clear water lake and reminded Keir that he had forgotten to drink water and eat food after he returned to his right mind, with the sight of the water Keir's throat burned with dehydration, blood was not enough to satisfy his thirst as he was not a beast but a human, almost.
As he drank the water, his throat felt comfort and pleasure, and he felt satisfied with all his heart. Remembering how he was feeling, he wondered if the people he killed felt the same emotions as him. Did they feel glad? Did they feel the pleasure of satisfaction? Did they even feel happiness?
Thinking about how they laughed and talked, he felt guilt and his heart felt heavier.
Keir put that guilt behind him for the time being and focussed on the beast that he was going to prey on, but he couldn't see the beast anywhere. Maybe it was under the water. After all, it was a vast lake. It could be anywhere under it or on the top of the waterfall. Keir looked around but found nothing.
He closed his eyes and used his beast-like senses to sense the beast as he did with the people killed.
He could now sense the trees, smell all the surrounding smell, feel the volume and shape of his surroundings and hear every sound of the wind and water.
He continued until he couldn't see just one part. There was nothing, just nothing. He could sense the volume of land, stones, and water, but in that place, there was nothing. He couldn't even feel the air inside there.
He opened his eyes and neared the place. It was behind the waterfall he couldn't sense anything. Keir entered the unknown place.
He passed through the waterfall and saw nothing but darkness. He closed his eyes to sense it all, but he couldn't. There was nothing, yet he walked on the ground and breathed the air.
" Introduce yourself! Human."
Keir heard a voice. It was in his mind, so he didn't hear it. He thought it.
He got spooked and couldn't disobey.
"I-I am Keir! I am an Adventurer a-and I have come here t-to get stronger."
Keir stuttered as he spoke, of course, because of his fear.
"That is not all there is to it, is it? "
The voice asked in a laughing tone.
"...."
Keir stayed silent as he didn't want to answer the questions of an unknown voice.
"Hmmm, then let me tell you, you have used necromancy and merging, and also have killed your fellow humans for. You have messed with a man and you have a fight in a few days, so you have to seek power and knowledge. How hilarious! Many have come here to prove their power, but none left this place and you won't either. You are not the only one using dark arts either"
The voice laughed an evil laugh.
Keir remained silent. He was confused. He didn't know what was going to happen to him anymore. All he could imagine was that this voice might harm his existence.
"Get to the point...I know you don't want nothing from me 'cause if you did, you wouldn't be having a friendly talk with me."
Keir said something brave but with a scared voice.
"Dumb choice."
The voice said, disappointed.
The darkness faded away. Keir heard noises, the noise of running and dropping water. He was in a cave where trees grew and glared brightly, with light escaping from holes on the crest of the cave.
His mind calmed at the new environment he had just dropped into a moment ago. A small zooming sound buzzed in and slowly it grew until it was loud and a colossal figure dropped in front of Keir's eyes. The moment the figure landed, the ground shook heavily. Keir was about to lose his balance because of the shaking of the ground but he kept his body standing by barely touching the ground
It had a scaly, reptile-like body; the head had sharp horns on its head along with a large neck and eyes of a reptile filled with blood thirst, a long tail, long black teeth, and large wings. It was a Dragon, a big black Dragon. If the sizes had to be compared, the dragon had to be an entire mountain, while Keir would be nothing more than a pebble.
Black smoke emerged from its nostrils and blood dripped from its monstrous teeth.
So f*cking enormous. Keir silently thought.